Casa dos Bicos

On Lisbon’s riverside street of the cod merchants, a house of stone diamonds guards two cities in one: the Renaissance Lisbon of the voyages above, and the Roman and Moorish city below its floor.

Diamonds, beaks and a Nobel prize

Built in 1523 by Brás de Albuquerque, son of the viceroy of India, after a journey to Italy, the Casa dos Bicos is a rare example of Renaissance civil architecture in Lisbon, its façade studded with diamond-shaped stones. The people of Lisbon, less impressed, thought they looked like beaks — and the name stuck. The earthquake of 1755 tore away its upper floors; over the centuries the house was a noble residence, a warehouse, even a cod store. Since 2012 it has housed the José Saramago Foundation, and its ground floor belongs to the Museum of Lisbon: preserved here are a stretch of the Fernandine wall, Moorish remains and the tanks of a Roman fish-salting factory. It sits minutes from the Money Museum and from the National Tile Museum across the old town.

What to see

• The diamond-studded façade on Rua dos Bacalhoeiros
• The archaeological nucleus of the Museum of Lisbon
• Roman fish tanks and sections of medieval walls
• The collection and exhibitions of the José Saramago Foundation
• The olive tree of Saramago in the square outside

Practical information

The Casa dos Bicos stands between the Praça do Comércio and the cathedral, in the heart of riverside Lisbon. It opens Monday to Saturday, 10.00–18.00; a joint ticket with the Museum of Lisbon’s other sites is available.

Image credit: Casa dos Bicos by Vernaccia — CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.